As Mexican food is being globally “elevated” and appropriated by the foodie elite, Mexico has seen a simultaneous rise in obesity and diabetes as access to traditional food is drastically hindered as a result of the North American Free Trade Agreement. Eating NAFTA is an investigation of the rise of industrial food systems in Mexico and the ways that governments have decentered the state’s responsibility to protect public health, while deflecting the blame and responsibility for health problems onto individuals, especially women and marginalized populations.

Gálvez switches between personal interviews and macro-level policies as she discusses everything from migration, the role of nostalgia in food consumption patterns, the burden of labor for women, and why the public health crisis in Mexico is not just an unintended consequence of NAFTA. She identifies these health outcomes and shifts in foodways as a logical result of policies implemented for the benefit of American corporations and Mexican business elite.

Since NAFTA was signed in 1994, diabetes has become the leading cause of death in Mexico, with a prevalence of almost 16% of the population. 42% of its food is imported, and poverty and inequality have increased. Gálvez exposes diabetes and diet-related illness as an example of structural violence enabled by continued state-led manipulation.

Alyshia Gálvezis a cultural and medical anthropologist and professor of Latin American and Latino Studies at Lehman College of the City University of New York. She is the author of Patient Citizens, Immigrant Mothers: Mexican Women, Public Prenatal Care, and the Birth Weight Paradox and Guadalupe in New York: Devotion and Struggle for Citizenship Rights among Mexican Immigrants.

Eating NAFTA: Trade, Food Policies, and the Destruction of Mexico is a publication by the University of California Press.Click here to purchase.

Reviewed bySamantha Olvera​​5/5/2019

Samantha Olvera is a freelance writer, book reviewer, and avid reader of diverse literature. She currently resides in Costa Rica, where she farms tropical fruits and promotes sustainability education. She is passionate about intersectional feminism, food systems and regenerative agriculture, and lifting up underrepresented voices.